In October, fully electric cars took 37 percent of the new-car market: 94,086 of them, more than petrol and diesel cars combined for the second month in a row. Less than three years after the old subsidy was scrapped overnight and sales collapsed, the birthplace of the automobile is buying electric faster than its own car industry predicted!

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Germany’s best-selling electric car in October was Tesla's Model Y as it outsold the Volkswagen Golf, Germany’s best-selling car every year since 1981.

The catch is Tesla’s rhythm. Its German registrations swing with the delivery quarter, so the Model Y went from 299 in July to 8,038 in September, and the Tesla brand as a whole registered just 2,932 cars in October.

Over the full year sits second, outsold by Czech automobile manufacturer Skoda's Elroq that registered more than 3,000 cars in every month of 2026 through September and leads the year to date with 30,845, ahead of the Model Y.

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The top-10 brands in Germany according to the latest registration come exclusively from domestic brands: Volkswagen, Mercedes, and BMW.

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[This piece is written by Dr. Emir Kremić, the former head of the Federal Institute of Statistics of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Co-Founder of Auroris AI.]

When Bosnia and Herzegovina held general elections last month, it used biometric voter identification and ballot scanners — a reform widely praised for producing fast and accurate results. That’s a real achievement. But the region’s digital foundations remain fragile, and the region’s adversaries know it.

The Balkan chessboard remains checkered, torn between attraction to the European Union and to Russia, with China maneuvering for leverage. Bosnian nationalists, including separatist, pro-Russian Serbs, won the recent vote. But Serbs gave a pro-European student-led movement a clear majority in another October election, while Montenegro and Albania closed chapters in their EU accession talks.

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The cheapest way to shift the balance of power is to undermine trust in the ballot. For the region, cybersecurity is not a technical issue. It is a strategic one. Washington is waking up to the risk — but needs to increase its focus on digital dangers. The EU is already pressing for action but must also increase its scrutiny.

Across the region, national cyber-response teams remain small and underfunded, public systems are outdated, and responsibility is fragmented. Large volumes of sensitive data, from tax and health records to the new biometric voter data in Bosnia, are held in databases that are rarely audited.

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Telecommunications and surveillance networks rely on Chinese equipment. Belgrade’s Chinese-supplied “safe city” facial-recognition system represents the best-known example. Kremlin-funded media and anonymous networks are ready to amplify disinformation, which artificial intelligence now makes cheap to produce in local languages.

China’s Huawei remains the dominant supplier to Bosnia’s two largest mobile operators, BH Telecom and Republika Srpska’s M:Tel. The security risks of that choice have never been seriously considered. Western money paid for much of that infrastructure. Bosnia’s biometric voting carries its citizens’ calls, data, and biometric records — and it is only as trustworthy as the equipment and the vendors deployed.

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For a hostile power, this represents an attractive environment. It does not need to defeat Balkan institutions, only to find the least-protected one. Access gained can be used to collect data on officials, NATO personnel, and diaspora communities; to map energy grids and transport hubs; and to prepare disruption that can be switched on in a crisis.

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[In Albania], HomeLand Justice, a hacker group that the Albanian government links to Iran, broke into the national parliament, deleted data, and published lawmakers’ emails on Telegram. Investigators believe the attackers had administrative access well before they revealed themselves; passwords had reportedly not been changed for years, and intrusion alarms did not sound. It was the group’s third major attack on Albanian institutions since 2022.

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Ransomware paralyzed Montenegro*s government networks in 2022. Bosnia lacks a fully functioning state-level cyber emergency response team. A 2022 ransomware attack crippled the country’s Parliamentary Assembly, taking its servers, website, and email offline. Thousands of employees in state institutions were locked out of their networks for more than two weeks. No public report on the incident or its lessons was ever released. The pattern persists. In early 2024, hackers breached the Bosnian Republika Srpska’s health information system and its tax administration.

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The EU already demands cybersecurity and data protection standards as part of the accession process, and Montenegro and Albania are moving quickly through the chapters. Brussels and NATO should make cyber-resilience a visible, funded priority across the region: shared incident response, regular audits of critical databases, support for election security, and clear rules on high-risk vendors in critical networks.

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Serbia’s incoming government has promised transparency and the rule of law while keeping military neutrality. Cyber cooperation is one area where it can work closely with EU and NATO partners without changing that stance. Bosnia’s successful use of election technology shows what is possible, and also creates a new duty to protect biometric data.

Western Balkan citizens want accountable institutions. Protecting that legitimacy means protecting their networks.

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Chinese company Jiangxi Guangbo Optoelectronic Technology is offering Russian customers fiber-optic cable in lengths of up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) along with drones equipped with AI-assisted guidance.

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The Chinese company’s representatives showcased those products at the Fleet 2026 naval exhibition in Kronstadt, offering their Russian partners both ready-made systems and opportunities to cooperate on the joint development of technology “for specific combat missions.”

Visually similar AI-guided drones with comparable specifications are being sold under various brands via Russian online marketplaces. The manufacturer of the most widely marketed brand, Strizh, is listed as NPP NTT LLC, a company linked to the maker of Russia’s Orlan drones. NPP NTT supplies products to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Federal Protective Service (FSO), and the Russian Defense Ministry. Despite claims that the interceptor drones are Russian-made, promotional videos advertising them were filmed in China.

Jiangxi Guangbo is a resident of the Russian-Chinese Business Park in St. Petersburg and cooperates with Nanchang Hangkong University in Jiangxi, China. The PRC introduced restrictions on drone exports in 2023, meaning the company’s activities appear to contradict Beijing’s publicly stated policy.

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[Original in Czech. This is an automated paraphrased translation.]

Czech MEP Markéta Gregorová (Greens/EFA) was a member of a 12-member mission of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee (INTA) to China last week.

Right after she arrived at the airport in Beijing, Gregorová said the police stopped her and took her away. She was banned from using her phone, so she couldn't contact anyone. Neither her diplomatic passport nor her invitation letter helped. After about an hour, the phone was released again, but she was then taken to a room where she spent another half hour.

The MEP stated that it wanted to ask for an explanation from the Chinese party and plans to discuss the incident with EP President Roberta Metsola.

Gregorová, a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party, believes that the detention may have been related to the case of a Chinese citizen accused of espionage in the Czech Republic who was tried at the time of her arrest. According to Gregorová, no one else from the airport delegation had any problems.

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China wants European technology in exchange for higher imports

During the trade talks, the Chinese Communist Party said that there could be an increase in imports of certain European goods into China. "They mentioned, for example, the high-level medical facilities we have," said Gregorová. Although China has made progress in some top technologies, for example in the production of prosthetic limbs, it still needs standard medical facilities.

The Chinese representative was interested in importing European lithographic equipment. It is a unique device that creates forms to produce the smallest chips, which no one else in the world can do but the Dutch, said the MEP, adding that Europe should not pass on this to China. The Dutch company ASML currently dominates this sector.

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Britain should be prepared for an AI-powered cyberattack on its critical national infrastructure in the next two years, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre said on Tuesday, adding that China was likely the best equipped to conduct such operations.

Richard Horne, chief executive of the NCSC, which is part of the GCHQ spy agency, said far too many organisations and supply chains in Britain had got away with "doing tech on the cheap" for decades, leaving them vulnerable.

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"But we must be clear that is not because AI has invented new ways to attack us, but because vulnerabilities that have been tolerated for far too long can now be discovered and exploited at a scale that was once unimaginable."

In its annual report (pdf), the NCSC said it was highly likely there would be  a ransomware attack involving AI-powered malware by 2028 on the nation's critical infrastructure.

During that same period, it warned that AI use by hostile actors was also set to enhance the scale and efficiency of their operations.

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Thirty-five years after challenging Soviet rule in the name of democracy, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania now rely in part on volunteer citizen organizations that attract tens of thousands of members to help defend their countries.

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The Estonian Defense League and its affiliated organizations – a women's branch and two groups for children and teenagers – have 30,800 members, representing 2.2% of Estonia's population of 1.3 million. In Latvia, the National Guard counts around 10,000 volunteers. It is unique in that it is integrated into the country's armed forces, while the other two are civilian organizations, although they are partly guided by military personnel.

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Similar organizations exist in Estonia and Latvia, the other two Baltic states, where, as in Lithuania, membership numbers surged following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

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'The state is the citizens'

[Civil society] groups play similar roles in Baltic societies. Founded or re-established when the three countries gained independence, they are closely tied to the same spirit that made freedom possible: the uprising of long-oppressed populations. Massive demonstrations, intellectual, artistic, and social dissent culminated in the Baltic Way in August 1989, when more than two million people formed a human chain from Tallinn in Estonia to Vilnius in Lithuania. From the mid-1980s to 1990, these movements became known as the "Singing Revolutions," as crowds defiantly sang banned national anthems and traditional songs. They were experienced as a national "awakening" – or atmoda, as the movement is known in Latvia.

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But the head of the League further emphasized the diversity of tasks its members perform. "Everyone can be useful according to their abilities, talents and availability," he said. Are you good at cooking? Feeding refugees or soldiers can be crucial. Used to caring for the elderly? You can save lives. Some members monitor Russian propaganda, verify information and run communication campaigns to counter fake news. The population also attends evacuation training sessions; 1,000 women from the female branch have taken part and will be ready if war breaks out. The officer also mentioned "drone football" tournaments, which help develop essential skills. He spoke about the children's sections, camping, outdoor games, solidarity, and the sense of belonging to a team that these activities foster.

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He gestured toward the end of the garden: a fence, a stream, a vacant lot full of wild grass. Beyond that is Russia, always in plain sight for the people of Kybartai. "Who will help us," he added, "if we don't take care of it ourselves?"

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With the planned investment, BASF’s Electronic Materials business is expanding its site in Taoyuan, Taiwan, with additional production capacity for state-of-the-art semiconductor materials, improved quality analysis capabilities, and an expanded innovation center. The investment is intended to support the growing global demand for leading semiconductor manufacturing technologies, particularly the latest sub-2-nm technologies. At the same time, it strengthens supply chain resilience and customer proximity.

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The UK Government is “making up its China policy as it goes”, exposing the UK to both economic and national security risks, MPs have warned in a new report.

In a 102-page document (pdf) published on Monday, MPs sitting on the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee (Bist) accused the Labour government of failing to deliver on its 2024 promise to implement a “strategic, long-term, consistent” approach to China.

The Government has re-engaged with China without establishing the rules of the game required to protect British economic and national security, says the Bist report.

"Businesses are therefore navigating their relationship with one of the world’s most consequential economic actors without knowing where engagement is prohibited, where safeguards are required, and where the Government will actively support growth. This is not good enough."

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Successive governments have failed to reassure the security community, the public, or Parliament that they have taken adequate measures to defend UK national security and economic resilience, the report says.

The lack of predictability and clear guidance is hampering UK businesses’ ability to make commercial decisions about the Chinese market.

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Drawing on Britain’s strengths, it should provide targeted support for businesses in carefully selected sectors by negotiating better market access, increasing export finance, and enhancing guidance.

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The Government should pursue a new framework with three strategic objectives.

First, it should insist on fair trade, strengthening trade remedies and reforming procurement to enable British firms to compete on a level playing field. This should include preparation of tariffs to be deployed where China refuses to reform unfair competition practices.

Second, it should prevent the transfer of sensitive technologies and data to China by better resourcing the UK’s research security apparatus, strengthening the regulation of data traffic between connected vehicles in the UK and foreign entities, banning high risk connected tech from UK critical national infrastructure, and strengthening the Government’s powers of continuous review of foreign ownership of UK assets in strategic sectors.

Third, it should minimise the UK economy’s exposure to coercion, disruption and forced labour by developing a plan to secure UK supply chains and banning the import of products made using forced labour.

[The linked Bist report lists 42 measures.]

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Czech manufacturers are interested in setting up drone assembly lines in Taiwan, former Czech Chamber of Deputies president Marketa Pekarova Adamova told a forum in Taipei.

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The Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology said the Czech Republic is the largest importer of Taiwanese drones and uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) components.

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The Czech Republic is a significant contributor to Ukraine’s defense efforts, as the two countries are separated only by 300km, she said.

As a result, Czech industries have rich experience in developing battle-tested drones, software and navigation systems, compared with other manufacturers that can only test their platforms in labs, Adamova said.

Beyond warfighting, drones have many applications, such as critical infrastructure security, agriculture and logistics, she added.

Prosperity, democracy and livelihood lose all meaning if people cannot live in peace and security, which underscores the importance of Taiwan-Czech collaboration in drones, Adamova said.

Taiwan and the Czech Republic are like-minded countries with shared democratic values, and must work together to defend themselves against powerful foes, Adamova added.

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The collision occurred on 28 October near Urda, on the Madrid–Seville high-speed line, when a Renfe AVE train struck a stationary Iryo service.

It followed another fatal accident on the same railway corridor in January, when 46 people died near Adamuz in Córdoba province.

The latest disaster has raised questions about how Spain manages one of Europe’s largest high-speed railway networks and whether its safety systems have kept pace with expanding passenger traffic.

According to an updated report from Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE, 56 of the 69 confirmed fatalities had been identified by Saturday evening, 31 October.

Forty-one injured passengers remained in hospital, including 19 receiving intensive care. The authorities were continuing their investigation and identification work.

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The accident has exposed disagreements between the government and railway unions over the condition of Spain’s infrastructure.

[Transport Minister Óscar] Puente has highlighted the apparent decision taken by traffic controllers after the signalling failure.

Railway workers’ representatives argue that attention should also be directed towards equipment reliability, staffing levels and the pressures facing control-centre personnel.

As Reuters reported, the minister acknowledged that the LZB system experiences approximately 170 interruptions annually, describing this frequency as consistent with historical averages.

The Madrid–Seville route is undergoing an upgrade to the European Rail Traffic Management System, intended to improve interoperability and train protection across European railways.

The upgrade has been delayed.

A contract awarded in 2021 envisaged the installation of the newer system by early 2026. Following contractual changes, the equipment is now expected to enter operation in early 2027.

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The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which was created to fund long-term conservation of tropical forests, recently received a $500-million pledge, over 10 years, from the Netherlands, a significant boost for forest conservation.

The Netherlands announced the pledge in an Oct 26 press release and estimated that the TFFF has the potential to protect 800 to 900 million hectares (2.0 to 2.2 billion acres) of tropical forest, an area roughly 200 times the size of the Netherlands.

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Contributing countries so far are France, UK, Germany, Indonesia, and Brazil, with Norway having pledged $3 billion under the condition that a $10 billion threshold is reached.

... The United States did not join the Fund when it was announced during the COP30. China, which signaled support and possible contributions, also held back on making an official announcement.

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The recent $500 million pledge came the day after Brazil’s runoff election in which incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has pledged to end deforestation by 2030, beat challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, a climate change denier who pledged to not demarcate any Indigenous land in Brazil.

Harstad noted concerns that governments can reverse their pledge to conserve TFFF-funded forests, “if someone like Bolsonaro should return to power in the future.”

Harstad recommends instead solutions like sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs), which have been used in Uruguay to lower bond interest rates, and attract investments, when deforestation rates are low.

Still, [the Netherlands'] recent TFFF investment has been praised by conservationists including Merijn van Leeuwen, director of Nature Conservation with WWF-Netherlands, who said it is a “major breakthrough for the protection of tropical forests worldwide.”

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Sales on Shein, Temu, and AliExpress have fallen sharply in Germany, while customs authorities across Europe report fewer small shipments. The early results suggest the charge is changing trade, although European retailers have yet to see clear benefits.

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In Germany, combined sales on Shein, Temu, and AliExpress dropped by 35.5 per cent year on year to €566m in the third quarter, according to e-commerce association BEVH. Their combined share of German online retail fell from 5.3 per cent in the second quarter to 3.1 per cent. The consumer survey measures spending, providing evidence of falling purchases beyond changes in customs declarations.

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Italy recorded a 39 per cent decline in low-value parcel imports in July–August compared with May–June, according to figures from Customs Agency Director Roberto Alesse cited in an Italian parliamentary research dossier.

In Poland, Finance Ministry figures supplied to PAP showed customs declarations falling from 4.24m in June to 2.11m in July, a monthly decline of 50.1 per cent.

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The pattern extends elsewhere. Belgian authorities reported 53 per cent fewer low-value declarations in July than a year earlier. Czech customs figures reported by ČTK showed declared items falling by 81 per cent between June and September, from 13.6m to 2.6m. The figures cover different periods and counting methods, so they illustrate the scale of the adjustment rather than a ranking of declining demand.

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The duty is also changing how goods reach customers. Dutch Customs reported a 46 per cent fall in average e-commerce declarations in its initial July–August comparison with the first-half average, while standard declarations rose by 20 per cent. Its August figures were provisional and covered only the period to 25 August. Retailers appeared to be importing more goods in bulk and storing them in European warehouses before dispatching orders to consumers.

That shift can help customs authorities inspect imports. Dutch Customs Director-General Nannette van Schelven said fewer individual parcels were arriving directly for consumers, “making it easier for us to check whether products are safe”.

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Product safety remains a concern: as EU Perspectives reported, the Commission has accepted Temu’s plan to strengthen safeguards after tests exposed unsafe toys and chargers on its platform.

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Tariffs alone are not enough

BEVH attributed the pressure on low-margin Asian products to higher import charges. However, weakening confidence and rising energy costs also weighed on spending, while domestic retailers had not benefited from their competitors’ decline. “Tariffs alone are not enough,” BEVH chief executive Alien Mulyk said, calling for stronger market surveillance and enforcement.

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France deployed a 70,000-strong police presence ​to contain a widely expected bout of fresh unrest on Saturday in the latest nationwide protests driven by anger over living ‌costs, public services and President Emmanuel Macron's government.

Some 150 gatherings were planned across France, the interior ministry said.

The protests have inspired youth-led protests across Europe, with demonstrations planned in more than 30 German cities on Saturday.

The European Commission wants Frontex, the EU’s border agency, to monitor public social media posts about migration. It would also flag illegal content to platforms. MEPs and digital rights groups say the plan puts online speech under a border agency’s watch. The Commission proposed the change on Tuesday as part of a wider overhaul of […] This story continues at The Next Web

A committee of the Parliament of Catalonia is considering a resolution that condemns China's persecution of Uyghurs, demands the release of arbitrarily detained people and urges European action.

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The text "condemns the systematic persecution of the Uyghur people exercised by the People's Republic of China." It cites mass detentions, torture, forced labour, destruction of cultural and religious heritage and forced sinicization. It demands "the release of all persons arbitrarily detained." It also reaffirms the right of Uyghurs to decide their political future "without external interference."

The resolution urges the Catalan government to press European bodies, specifically the European Commission's presidency, to adopt proportionate diplomatic and economic measures. It would set up ways to alert Catalan companies linked to Uyghur forced-labour supply chains. It asks the government to offer support and reception to Uyghurs who reach Catalonia fleeing persecution, under asylum rules. Copies would go to the Generalitat, EU institutions, the UN human rights office, the World Uyghur Congress in Munich and Uyghur community representatives in Catalonia.

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The preamble says Catalonia, "as a nation with a strong tradition in the defence of language, culture and self-determination," has a responsibility to speak out when other peoples are denied their rights. Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain with its own language. Under Francisco Franco's dictatorship (1939–1975), Catalan language and cultural institutions faced severe restrictions.

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[In the past, similar declarations have been made by European and international lawmakers that branded China's policy in the Xinjiang regions as genocide, including the parliaments of the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, France.]

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Italy’s Public Prosecutor in Milan has now officially closed investigations against ten individuals suspected of stalking, surveilling, pressuring and threatening Li Ying, the famous Chinese dissident-influencer better known under his handle Teacher Li is not your Teacher. The end of the years-long investigations conducted by the specialized Digos police in Turin opens the door to a request for trial against the suspects.

The ten suspects – who have not yet been charged - are all accused of acting on behalf of Chinese authorities with the aim of silencing Li.

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Among the suspects, some familiar names. One in particular as Corriere della Sera reports: Wang Songqiang – who we described in our exposé on the transnational repression activities against Li Ying in 2024 – would have “acted on behalf of the Chinese police and maintained close contact with diplomatic staff and certain members of the United Front Work Department”.

[The united front, officially named the patriotic united front,[a] is a political strategy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) involving networks of groups and key individuals that are influenced or controlled by the CCP and used to advance its interests.]

Wang has long had a leadership role in various Fujianese united front affiliated groups across Italy, including in Milan. Another suspect is Zhengang Liu, chairman of the same Italian Fujian Overseas Chinese Business Federation Wang is linked to. A third suspect, Jianbin Zhao, would have recruited other individuals to engage in the stalking of Li Ying via WeChat.

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According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the purpose of the group was to suppress “communications regarding the situation in their home country” and to obstruct “the exercise of the right to freedom of expression”.

Earlier this year, Italy had expelled eight Chinese nationals from Schengen territory on national security grounds for their involvement in the same case.

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A new international poll reveals a widening gap between concern about climate change and confidence in the policies designed to tackle it, as EU governments struggle to reconcile ambitious green targets with mounting pressure to cut energy bills.

The EU is currently changing its core privacy law, the GDPR. Members of the European Parliament have made more than 1000 amendments. We have analysed all of them and show which of your representatives are the biggest privacy defenders and who is trying to undermine the current privacy protections.

The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office in Italy said Wednesday that it has concluded an investigation and is set to file charges against 10 suspects allegedly involved in "repressive and coercive actions against" Chinese dissidents living in the Lombardy capital.

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Four of them are Chinese nationals who were allegedly in "constant contact with the authorities" in Beijing about the allegedly illegal activities [such as] stalking, surveillance, intimidation, and threats allegedly against Li - known on social media as "Teacher Li" - a 34-year-old dissident, activist and influencer with millions of followers.

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In their opening remarks, Executive Director of TENI, Daire Dempsey, shared “Extensive research (…), and our direct work with community members, tells us that trans people experience poorer mental and physical health, increased isolation, and increased marginalisation than cisgender people, or people who are not trans. This makes sport particularly important.”